


The music to Time's ears

by whovianhiddlestoner



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Cute, Davekat Week, Davekat Week 2016, Fluff, Language headcanon, M/M, music making
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-01
Updated: 2016-10-01
Packaged: 2018-08-18 23:08:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8179246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whovianhiddlestoner/pseuds/whovianhiddlestoner
Summary: Dave Strider took the trolls speaking in English for granted. How couldn’t he? Whenever Rose or Dave was around the grey aliens they always used English out of some silently agreed solidarity. What they did on their own was none of Strider’s concerns; they can growl and gurgle at each other in their freakish Alternian language as much as they want. 
What Dave didn't know that he wall fall in love with this foreighn tongue.
- Last day for Davekat Week: Free day





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was laying in my WIP folder for a few weeks now and I'm glad Davekat Week came along to give me the motivation to finish this.

Dave Strider took the trolls speaking in English for granted. How couldn’t he? Whenever Rose or Dave was around the grey aliens they always used English out of some silently agreed solidarity. What they did on their own was none of Strider’s concerns; they can growl and gurgle at each other in their freakish Alternian language as much as they want. Or maybe they talk like Klingons, and they listen to shitty troll opera in their rooms. These are the voyages of the meteor U.S.S. Fuck-you-this-is-your-shitty-home-now, its three year mission to hurl in space in high speed while boring the pants and socks off your lazy ass, and to explore trippy dream bubbles until you get sick, like when you eat too much chocolate for your own good and you get nasty nauseous and your stomach hurts and all you want to do is puke all over your new designer shoes that cost all your pocket money but you’re not sick enough so all you can do is produce little burps in hope of starting the gagging and puking process but it just never happens.

Oh wait. The Knight of Time just rambled on about complete and utter nothingness like many times before on this god forsaken space rock and has missed out on the quality catfight that was Karkat screaming at a smug Vriska who was slowly, yet effectively becoming gradually more irritated as their argument went on. Nice one, Strider! The only time some drama happens and he doesn’t listen to it.

What the fuck were the two even bickering about? Dave should really have a safety lock button in his brain with ‘ANTI BULLSHIT’ plastered on it in bright red comic sans text.

The human was sitting at the living room table, mixing some sweet new tracks with Karkat accompanying him when the Spider Bitch trampled her highblood backside in the room and this is when the two trolls started their fight and Dave’s brain decided to descend into the dark caverns of metaphors.

Dave’s eyes darted behind his shades at the drama in motion in hope of getting the tail end of the argument. Karkat was seconds away from exploding into a screaming hurricane of fury as Vriska talked with her usual delusional superiority.

“It was your choice to play with Dave like a 8bunch of stupid wrigglers and 8e o8livious of all the planning process. Seriously, I’m doing all the work here! Aaaaaaaall of them! If you feel like you’re out of the loop, may8e you shouldn’t have let me take over and 8ecome the new leader.” Vriska said with a self-satisfied hair flip.

Well, that didn’t really help Dave about what was going on but the sight of the shorter nubby troll’s face becoming a dangerous deep shade of red was sort of worth paying attention. He could practically see the steam coming out of Karkat’s ears. His response will be something to behold, that much was clear.

Karkat let out a bloodcurdling shriek with a double combo frustrated face palm x2. Yes, good, the original Vantas-screech that always something fantastic follows. The angry troll filled his lungs with air, taking a pause for substantial ironic purposes (you taught him well, Stider) and let out something that left both Dave and Vriska shocked for different reasons.

In a raging scratchy voice that was on the border of growling Karkat screamed a dissonant tune of chirps into the cobalt blood’s face with a few rapid clicks in different heights of sound. Vriska stared at him wide eyed for a few seconds before turning around with a huff.

“W8W. Was that supposed to offend me?” She said and left the room, her loud stomps resonating through the meteor.

Karkat stayed there, glaring sternly at the door until the troll girl’s steps died down. He sighed and made his way back to the human, taking his respective place next to him on the seat. Dave looked at the troll as if he’d just seen him for the very first time.

“Holy shit.” The Knight of Time said. He did not expect that out of Karkat, whatever that was.

Karkat raised a brow at him. “THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?”

“Dude. Did you just angry sing at Vriska?”

“…” Karkat blinked at him a few times. “DAVE, A FUCKING DISGUSTING HOOFBEAST SHIT MAKES MORE SENSE THEN YOU. LOOK AT THAT LONELY SHIT THERE, JUST LOOK AT IT. IT IS AS CONFUSED AS I AM ABOUT WHAT THE FUCKING HELL YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT.”

“You screamed some musical notes and made an oral clicking drum solo into Vriska’s face and she was a pussy about it.” Dave couldn’t help the slight awe in his monotone voice; he’s spent way too much time around Karkat to be one hundred percent cool kid near him.

Karkat rolled his eyes with a snort. “I ONLY TOLD HER TO GO PAIL ALL THE SHIT THAT I’VE LOST BEFORE I FIND THEM AND FLIP IT IN HER FACE.”

Dave silently stared deep into the troll’s eyes and proceeded to smush his friend’s cheeks until his lips were deformed into a pouty duckface.

“Are you telling me that that was your weird alien troll language?”

The alien boy swatted Dave’s hands from his face in irritation.

“YES, JEGUS, DON’T GET YOUR BULGE CONCEALING UNDER CLOTH UP IN A TWIST OVER IT. IT’S NOT THAT SPECIAL.”

Dave’s mouth twitched up into a smirk which by Strider means is a full blown grin. He placed a hand on the smaller boy’s shoulder and scooted closer to him. “Dude. Bro. Bro. Kar.”

“JUST FUCKING SAY IT DAVE! IF YOU GET ANY MORE EXCITED I’LL MIGHT HAVE TO SHOOSH YOU!” Karkat raised a clawed hand ready to start papping anytime. The time player gently pushed his friend’s hand down in a silent reassurance that papping won’t be needed.

“Ya gotta say something in ‘trollish’ for me.”

“LIKE WHAT?” Karkat frowned.

“I don’t fucking know, say a movie or book quote or something. As long as I’m swooning like a virgin schoolgirl at some sexy French words I don’t care what dirty things you’re sing-whispering into my ears. Ooh, Mr. Vantas, seduce me with your exotic alien language, take my ears on a moonlit date across Paradox Space and let those vocally conjured sounds make sweet, sweet love to- mm _mmmhhh_ …” Dave was cut off by two grey palms firmly plastered upon his mouth.

“SHUT UP YOU MENTALLY CHALLANGED DOUSHWAD! FINE, I’LL HUMOUR YOU, JUST NEVER IN A MILLION SWEEPS SAY ANYMORE BULGE NUMBING IDIOCITY OR I’LL LOCK YOU IN A ROOM WITH ROSE SO SHE CAN FIGURE OUT WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOUR THINKPAN.” Karkat said and slightly withdrew from the other. He took a small time to think about what to say then he began.

His voice was almost unnoticeably scratchy but much more pleasing than before as he went into a longwinded chirping melody with the occasional clicks which gave a nice rhythm to it. He even gestured with his arms and tilted his head here and there like when he usually talked. The Strider’s attention was glued to every note and little changes in the ‘song’, how the nubby troll’s voice sounded with every higher or lower chord. As Dave’s fingers started to tap on his knee along with the pulsating clicks he thought he could totally rap to this. Karkat finished and looked at the boy with tiresome eyes.

“Wow.” Dave breathed out.

“ARE YOU FUCKING HAPPY?”

“Yeah, bro. What the hell were you even saying this long?”

The smaller knight awkwardly shifted in his seat. “THE OPENING THEME OF ‘THE THRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIR’. TROLL WILL SMITH IS JUST THE BEST THERE IS.”

“…”

Dave looked at Karkat with a poker face.

“Fucking marry me.”

“PFFFF…” Karkat snorts in hope of smothering a laugh. “LIKE ANYONE WOULD WANT TO HUMAN MARRY YOU, FUCKFACE.”

The blonde smiles. Karkat only puts ‘human’ in front of something nowadays when he wants to humour the boy.

“Anyone would be happy to ‘human’ marry this choice ass that is ‘Le Derriere D’Strider’. No one can resist this hot bod, not even you, K-man.” Dave stands up and showcases his body with some stretched out waves in front of himself. Karkat unsuccessfully tries to hide his laughter then stands up as well.

“WHATEVER, PISSPOT. THE BITCHFEST OF MUTUAL VERBAL ABUSEMENT WITH VRISKA TIRED ME OUT SO I THINK I’M GONNA GO REST, MAYBE EVEN GET SOME SHUTEYE IF THAT’S EVEN POSSIBLE.” The troll said and left the room to his own respiteblock.

“Keep those Dead Daves company in your dreams, will you?” The god tier knight shouted after him and an incomprehensible sound of acknowledgment came back.

Dave stayed in the living room for a while, thinking about this newfound development that was the Alternian language. He still couldn’t entirely believe that the trolls were communicating via musical bug sounds and beats. He needed further investigation.

“Kanaaayaaaa!”

The blonde darted out of the room and ran down the halls of the meteor towards the library.

“Kanaaayaaaaaaaaa!”

He burst through the library door and had his eyes locked on the green blood behind his visors like Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Terminator. Rose was flipping through a book placed on the long study table with even more books on it staked into neat piles. If that wasn’t enough reading material for the Seer than golly, how glad she must be that her beloved troll lady friend just carried three more books in her arms.

Dave flash stepped in front of the troll with a last “Kaaaanaaaaaaayaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”, thus successfully startling her and letting the carried books to tumble on to the floor with a couple of thuds.

“’Sup Kanaya.” Dave shifted his shades on the bridge of his nose and casually leant against the table.

With a questioning raise of an eyebrow and a swipe down of delicate clawed hands on her red skirt to compose herself, Kanaya placed her attention to the boy. Even Rose looked at her ecto-brother with a mildly puzzled expression but amused enough by his antics to silently giggle.

“Hello Dave. And In What Way Can I Help You?” she inquired.

“Nothing much, just you to provide me with a dose of ‘trollian’ language because once I heard that crack for the ear I can’t stop and I need that drug right now ‘couse y’all selfish troll bastards kept that good shit away from me all this time. I bet even Rose knew about it and didn’t share it with me. Some sis you are, Rose. Shame. Just fucking shame on y’all. Now say something.”

Kanaya shared an entertained glance with Rose and bent down to retrieve her scattered books. “And What Would You Propose Me To Say?”

Dave shrugged as if saying ‘do I have to come up with everything around here?’

“Maybe ‘I’m flushed for Rose’? Or ‘Gamzee smells like fried shit sticks and his mother is a hamster’.”

Kanaya blushed a slight green at the first statement and looked behind the knight at Rose with a smile who replied with a silent chuckle and a wink. The midblood let out two high clicks and chirped three sweet notes followed by another click and finished with saying ‘Rose’ normally.

The Strider couldn’t hide his smirk. This language was just too perfect for his musical self. “Nice. Question: why didn’t you translate ‘Rose’?”

“A Troll’s Name Is Not Part Of Our Language. When Our Lusus Gives Us Our Name They Gurgle Some Incoherent Blabber And The Closest Six Letter First And Last Names Are Assigned To Us. However I Must Agree That This Ruins The Flow Of Alternian A Little Bit, This Is Why Most Of Alternian Slam Poetries Refrain From Putting Names In Their Lyrics.” Kanaya explained.

The boy stared at her for a few seconds in heavy irony covered dramatic silence to get the weight of his poker face across. “Kanaya. Dude. I am so fucking disappointed in you.”

He crossed his arms and pushed himself away from the table which made his deep red cape flutter.

“We’ve been sharing sweet jams and all this time you’ve been translating your troll raps instead of showing them to me in all their shining original beauty. Rose. Rose, catch me.” Dave made some grabby motions towards her ecto-sibling with his hands. “Rose, fucking catch me. I’m gonna faint from all this unbelievable dismay that is crushing my heart under its heavy-ass weight. It made an acrobatic pirouette down a ten storey building and crash landed right into my chest and its impact sent me into a comatose state and this is all entirely your hot alien girlfriend’s fault. Rose. Rose, why the fuck aren’t you catching me? Can’t you see I’m falling? You’re the worst ecto-sis, you know that, right?”

Seeing that the girl ignored his high jinks, Daved stopped with his grabbing and fake falling. If not for his god tier flight he would’ve long since fallen on his ass.

“Do all trolls sound the same?” he asked, actually curious. Maybe he should write some notes.

Kanaya thought for a moment. “Well, Sea-Dwellers Have A Different Dialect. They Can’t Really Do Clicks Underwater So They Usually Let Out Bubbles I Think. Though On Land They Can’t Really Make Bubbles So-”

“S0 TH3Y M4K3 TH1S GURGL1NG N01S3 L1K3 TH3Y 4R3 CH0K1NG 0N M4RBL3S. 4LL S34-DW3LL3RS S0UND D1SGU4ST1NG, Y0U D0N’T W4NT T0 H34R TH3M. MY N0S3 N3V3R L1K3D B31NG 4R0UND 3R1D4N.”

Terezi came in the room and snagged a red leather bound book and started licking on it. She went into the near end of the library where a book pile was set up and she flopped into it.

“H3Y D4V3!” she waved and put the book straight in her mouth, a couple of her sharp teeth biting into the cover.

“Hey Rezi” The blonde waved back.

“Well, I’m gonna go and lay down some sick rhymes. I feel inspiration flowing in my veins and stuff.” Dave turned and walked out of the room.

“Later.” he said and was gone probably into his room.

~*~*~

“Pssst. Hey Karkat.”

“FUCKING SHIT!” The mutant blood screamed and threw the romance novel he was reading at Dave’s face which he dodged with ease. “DON’T EVER DO THAT CRAP ON ME AGAIN, YOU NOOK SHITTING CLUCKBEAST!”

“Karkat, chill.” Dave said and started pulling on his hand in the direction of his room. “I wanna show you something and it’s gonna blow your mind out of sheer genius and ya’ll probably gonna all worship me for it with golden statues and all that flashy stuff and the Mayor will create a national holyday celebrating yours truly in Can Town.”

By the time he finished talking he managed to drag the troll all the way to the door of his room. Not that much dragging was necessary; Karkat followed him anyway at ‘I wanna show you something.’

“FINE, FINE, JUST PLEASE SPARE ME FROM YOUR EGO STROKING, IT’S FUCKING EMBARRASSING.”

They entered Dave’s room and as Karkat skimmed over the place he noticed that the human’s turntables and music equipment were set up for action.

“DAVE?” Karkat looked at him slightly suspicious. “WHAT THE FUCK WAS WRONG WITH OUR MIXING LESSONS BEING IN THE LIVING ROOM?”

Dave pushed a microphone into clawed hands. “Because this ain’t a lesson.” And then he ran and reached under his bed and started to hoard out notes from it, searching through them.

“This is live and actual work here. We’re doing this, man. We’re making this happen.” The blond found what he was looking for and made his way back towards a heavily frowning Karkat.

Dave tightened his clutch on the papers he was holding, avoiding eye contact maybe the tiniest bit shy, but eventually held them out for the troll to grab. “I want you to read this into the mic in trollish. Nothing extra.”

Karkat stared at the papers, then at the microphone, then back to the other Knight.

“YOU DO REALISE THAT YOU ARE ASKING ME TO DO A SHITTY SLAM POETRY.”

“…”

“Will you do it?”

An exasperated sigh. “ALRIGHT. GIMME THAT DOUSHE SCRATCHING THAT YOU CALL RAPPING.”

Karkat’s eyes ran through the first verses, the atmosphere between the two growing hot and awkward, even with the blonde maintaining his cool on the outside for the sake of keeping things not weird. As the troll read he couldn’t help but feel he’s invading the other’s privacy.

i don’t need to tell you why i don’t wear my heart on my sleeve  
but we both know under the layers that we’ve built up we feel  
up and runnin and pumpin pouring all metaphorical shit  
all this rhymings so dope but you might think it aint a hit  
metaphorical literal lyrical word smithings all i got  
what im saying is you make my literal heart stop  
…

“DAVE?” the shorter one looked up feeling embarrassed. “AM I REALLY SUPPOSED TO READ THIS OUT? THIS FEELS VERY PERSONAL.”

“Yeah, man, I wrote this specifically to you… I mean for you. I mean I did write this with you in mind, uhhh, for you to read this. Yeah, that, for you to read it.” The human boy stumbled upon his words, his face feeling warmer with every word. Karkat felt the same way.

Dave sat down by his equipment and started up a new recording.

“Just go for it when ya ready.”

Tentatively, the nubby troll raised the mic before his fanged mouth and with eyes glued to the papers, he began. His musical chirps were a little too nice sounding for the Strider’s usual style, but the clicks held an almost steady beat and Karkat’s voice was now part of the blonde’s top five favourite sounds. If he wasn’t in love with Karkat then he was definitely in love with his voice.

 Dave’s feet were tapping along with the rhythm, eyes closed to completely throw himself into the alien melody. This way it was easier to imagine music under it.

When the troll reached the refrain, that sounded very catchy, the boy pulled up his headphones and started up a second recording so he could put down the music in his head that he could twiddle with later without damaging the sample of Karkat’s voice. On one track the troll ‘sang’, on the other music was being composed on the spot and the Knight of Time was swaying at the joint melody and he loved it.

The song came to its end when the mutant blood ran out of words to read. His yellow eyes gazed up at Dave with affection, clearly being touched from what he just read. The short troll walked up to the sitting human, for once being taller than him, and leant down to kiss him.

Dave was caught off guard, but he didn’t complain as he melted into the nice touch of Karkat’s lips, his chest warming up with all the feelings he had written down on that paper.

When Karkat pushed away from him, he held up the papers as he began to exit the room.

“I’M KEEPING THIS.” He said and left behind a very dazed and happy Knight.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't rap, I don't listen to rap, I'm sorry Dave but idk how it works but the reason that I got stuck on this in the first place was trying to write that rap even if it's just a few lines. I sometimes do poetry but finding rhymes in English is harder for me that to do that in Hungarian, my other language. What made it difficult was to write it as Dave Strider style as I could and even studying his pesterlogs where he starts rapping I feel like I didn't really nail it.
> 
> Welp if you enjoyed it then please leave kudos and comments, they really make my day :)


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